Night in the ER, first ultrasound & new date!!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - Posted by Danielle at 12:14 PM
Friday, we hung out around the condo and decided to go out for dinner, got ready and headed out. We made it about a mile and my head was spinning so bad, I was so dizzy and about to throw up (which hadn't been happening in a few weeks!) I told Mark we just needed to pick something up and head back to the condo. On the way back, we got stuck in a horrible line of construction, and I ended up WAY sick as I hung out the passenger door for all to see! Mark luckily was able to pull off to a desserted parking lot shortly after :)
The next few days and through the trip home, the dizziness, nausea and vomiting continually got worse. I was set to have Monday off and go back to work on Tuesday. Well Monday night, I was terribly sick and started having some stomach pains. We called the on-call nurse who told us that I should absolutely come in to be checked out. Although that meant we would be able to get things figured out, the fact that she said I needed to come in (even though we had a scheduled appointment with the midwife the next day) completely threw me into a panic.
We went in and after a urine test, blood work, poking me 3 times to be able to get the IV started (have I mentioned I pass out with needles!?), a catheter and an ultrasound, they finally diagnosed me with a severe UTI. It seemed really strange because I've had them in the past and had NONE of the usual symptoms. They explained that in pregnancy, things can take off fast so I may have just "skipped" some of the minor symptoms. We left with a perscription and I told Mark I just wanted to hold off on getting anything filled or starting anything until we could talk to the midwife the next day.
Gotta say though - THANK GOODNESS for the ultrasound that night because it made all the rest of it worth it!!!!! The doctor wanted to have it done to rule out an ectopic pregnancy since I was having stomach pains. The lady who did it was so cool about it knowing that it was our first one and let us watch the baby for a few minutes as he or she kicked and stretched and opened and closed it's mouth - INCREDIBLE. It was so awesome to finally see that it's all real!!! She tried her best to see gender, but no luck...
So, yesterday, we went in for our scheduled midwife appointment. It's routine to do a urine sample for them so I did and she came in and asked what it was that brought us into the ER. We explained and she said, "Well, that's interesting because on the culture from today, I show absolutely NO signs of a UTI at all." She explained that she could see how they would think that because the white blood cell count was very high, but she said pregnancy is the explanation for that. She asked a lot of questions and ended up determining that rather than a severe UTI, I have a severe inner ear infetion which is throwing my equilibrium off which is leading to the dizziness, nausea and vomiting. She prescribed two different meds which I started last night.
While I'm not as nauseous today, the room is definitely still spinning. I feel like I've been on a carousel for the past 6 days and can't get off. Thankfully, work has been so gracious and understanding of me needing a couple extra days to lay low after a long vacation!
No picture for "16 weeks" yet for two reasons...first off, I've been laying on the couch for the past few days and am not quite in a "picture taking" kind of place yet!! Also, according to measurements on the ultrasound, I am actually 14 weeks 4 days today rather than 16 weeks 3 days like we had thought. The new "due date" is February 25th.
Once I'm better and able to get off the couch without feeling like I'm going to fall down, I'll post a belly pic and the ultrasound pic!
Thanks for all the concern, prayers, and calls that you made over the last week. I feel very loved and we are very blessed.
